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'In the beginning, you had to think pretty hard about individual movements,' said Matheny as he demonstrated his mastery of the black metallic limb, clenching the fist and swiveling his wrist in a natural-looking motion.

'It just comes natural now, I don't even have to think about it.'

'SOFT' EXOSUIT WILL LIGHTEN LOAD

Engineers have created a flexible exosuit designed to make their lives slightly easier because it reduces the energy cost of walking when carrying heavy load.

The textile suit, using cables and motors, could also be used by hikers and emergency professionals who are first on the scene of an incident.

The suit, produced by engineers at Harvard University, comprises a waist belt, two thigh pieces and two calf straps, connected by cables to two motors mounted on a backpack.

The energy from the motors travels via cables to the suit which transfers it to the wearer.

The suit becomes active only when it detects a walking motion.

It assists the hip and ankle joints which together contribute about 80 per cent of the power produced by the leg joints during walking.

To see Darpa's other impacts, look no further than the phone in your pocket.

Many of the technologies inside - including the accelerometers that tell the phone which way is up, the voice recognition software and the touch screen - are all rooted in Darpa research.

Even the web has Darpa ancestry, as the agency helped build the first connections between computers.

Mr Matheny's prosthetic arm is experimental, meaning it must still clear regulatory hurdles before it is commercially available.

It clips directly onto his body thanks to a metal device surgically placed into the remainder of his arm, amputated above the elbow.

Mr Matheny controls it through sensors that pick up signals in the residual nerves that once ran to his fingertips.

Standing in the next stall was Fred Downs, 71, a former combat soldier who ran the US Department of Veterans Affairs' prosthetics program for 30 years.

Mr Downs lost his left arm when he stepped on a 'bouncing Betty' landmine in Vietnam in 1968. The devices shoot out the ground and explode at waist height.

'When you are a strong healthy solider, you get blown up and your whole life changes,' Lieutenant Downs said.

'You look at the array of prosthetic devices, it gives you hope and makes you realize that you are going to be able to become functional again and independent.'

Such technology was once the realm of science fiction - like the 1980 classic movie 'The Empire Strikes Back,' where Luke Skywalker gets a prosthetic hand after losing his own in a lightsaber dual with Darth Vader (shown)

Mr Matheny's prosthetic arm is experimental, meaning it must still clear regulatory hurdles before it is commercially available. It clips directly onto his body thanks to a metal device surgically placed into the remainder of his arm, amputated above the elbow (pictured)

More than 1,600 US troops underwent amputations during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, often after hitting roadside bombs.

Lieutenant Downs uses a silver-coloured prosthetic called a Deka arm that he controls by twitching muscles in his feet.

These signals are transmitted wirelessly to the arm, which also can be controlled in a manner similar to Matheny's.

First developed in 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved the Deka for commercial sale.

Such technology was once the realm of science fiction - like the 1980 classic movie 'The Empire Strikes Back,' where Luke Skywalker gets a prosthetic hand after losing his own in a lightsaber dual with Darth Vader.

Other technologies on display included a phone app that allows the real-time translation of spoken Iraqi Arabic to English and a model of a vertical takeoff aircraft (pictured)

The showcase also featured climbing pads that mimic the structure of a gecko's foot to let a human scale almost any surface (pictured being demonstrated at the Washington event)

Darpa is pushing such technologies further still.

Already, scientists have tested artificial limbs that let a wearer 'feel' sensations, and a paralyzed woman controlled two robotic arms with thought alone, through wires connected to the brain.

'We are just getting into what's possible,' said Justin Sanchez, the director of DARPA's Biological Technologies Office, which is developing memory implants for people suffering from traumatic brain injury.

About 340,000 current and former US troops have the condition, which can be caused by concussion or explosions.

Mr Sanchez said patients have shown a 20-30 percent improvement in memory, but he expects that number to rise.

Retired Lieutenant Fred Downs, who lost his arm to a land mine in the Vietnam War, uses his robotic hand that moves and provides sensations similar to a normal limb during the Darpa Demo Day at The Pentagon

Engineers recently created a flexible exosuit designed to make their lives slightly easier because it reduces the energy cost of walking when carrying heavy load. An exhibitor is pictured discussing a similar under suit that helps people on long marches reduce fatigue and avoid injuries at the event

'That shows how the accelerated pace of Darpa work can change how we think about these problems,' Mr Sanchez said.

Other technologies on display included a phone app that allows the real-time translation of spoken Iraqi Arabic to English, climbing pads that mimic the structure of a gecko's foot to let a human scale almost any surface and radio technologies that let military operators communicate when their signals are being jammed by an enemy.

'Sometimes, it doesn't work well enough, it may just die on the vine or perhaps get picked up years down the line,' Darpa spokesman Rick Weiss said.

'It's a high-risk, high reward model. In other cases, we will have succeeded in our main mission -- showing something is possible.'